BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
30 
the next morning about six o’clock, the river was brimming 
full with a very high tide, — an observation which I made with 
deep satisfaction in thus experiencing for myself the truth 
of Watson’s statement. A resident of the place told us that 
this was the usual phenomenon, though at other times there 
were two floods instead of one in the twenty-four hours. 
Desiring still further information on the matter I wrote 
to Mr. Edward J. Smith, Fishery Guardian at Buctouche, 
a man familiar with the tidal movements at that place, and 
he with the greatest courtesy, has sent me much valued 
information in response to my many inquiries. In synopsis, 
his testimony is as follows: The tides in Buctouche Harbour 
and River are greatly influenced by the winds, but aside from 
this it is a fact that in general the spring tides, at the new 
and full moons, flow twelve hours and ebb twelve hours, 
(exactly double the usual length of ebb and flow), thus making 
only one high tide in twenty-four hours, while at the neap 
tides, during the moon’s quarters, the tides flow and ebb in six 
hours, the usual way. Sometimes, in the Fall of the year, 
these twelve-hour tides will last continuously from new to 
full moon, the six-hour tides being entirely omitted. The 
change from the twelve to the six hour tides is rather sudden, 
though a day is apt to intervene in which there will be no 
tide proper at all, but only a rise and fall of four or five 
inches seven or eight times in the day. During the preval- 
ence of the twelve hour tides, there are signs of the six hour 
influence manifest in a slackening of the tide out in Buctouche 
Bay, but this does not appear in the Harbour or River, 
where the ebb and flow are continuous throughout the twelve 
hours. There appears to be no recognized local explanation 
of the phenomenon, aside from the general supposition that 
it is due to peculiarities in the arrangement of Buctouche 
Beach, though somewhere I have heard or read the suggestion, 
which seems more probable, that it is due to the way in which 
two tides meet in Northumberland Strait, after passing 
around both ends of Prince Edward Island, a matter which 
can of course be tested by simultaneous observations in 
